Every month, TMINE lets you know what TV the BFI will be presenting at the South Bank in London
If you like European plays, you’ll love March at the BFI, as there’s going to be a season of TV adaptations of European plays from down through the ages. Centrepiece of the season is a Q&A with Walter Iuzzolino of Walter Presents… fame, discussing with others including Cherie Lunghi, the British attitude to European TV.
If you dislike European plays, there’s some animated Doctor Who with assistant Anneke Wills and a preview of ITV’s Cheat that includes a Q&A with cast and crew. Full details after the jump…
Every week or so, TMINE flags up what new TV events BAFTA is holding around the UK
Moved to its somewhat odd new regular slot of Tuesdays, here’s the latest update on what BAFTA is doing TV-wise around the UK. At the moment, BAFTA seems to be focused on its Welsh activities, mind. Just announced is an additional date and location for Matthew Hall to talk about writing (more details on the first announcement) – he’s now going to be at JP studio, Bangor University, on Wednesday, 20 February at 1.30pm. You can book tickets if you’re a member by emailing Vicki.
But there’s one new event, which is for an S4C drama that if I not overlooked (as The Killing Timesis reviewing it), couldn’t quite find the time to watch.
Preview: Final episode of 35 Awr + Q&A (Carmarthen)
Sunday, 24 February 2019 – 7:30pm
Yr Egin, College Rd, Carmarthen SA31
Boom Cymru and S4C present the final installment of the eight-part series that is set in a jury room, featuring 10 people deliberating over a murder case.
Written by BAFTA Cymru nominee Fflur Dafydd (The Library Suicides) and starring Lisa Marged (Parch, Wolfblood) and Jâms Thomas (Gwaith Cartref).
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with cast and key creatives.
We have an allocation of members’ tickets. Email Vicki to reserve your place.
Follow the series every Sunday at 9pm on S4C and catch up with episodes you may have missed on the iPlayer.
Young adults are apparently the most stressed out of any generation ever. Perhaps that’s why so many of them are murderous right now, even vicariously in a period piece such as Deadly Class. Even those of them who have grown up in forests with only their fathers for company and who’ve never met another living person are off killing people, apparently.
At least, if you believe Amazon Prime’s new show, Hanna, a remake/reboot of the 2011 Joe Wright movie.
Hanna’s sister
It sees Esme Creed-Miles – who eerily looks precisely 50% like dad Charlie Creed-Miles (The Gemini Factor, Press Gang) and 50% like mum Samantha Morton (Minority Report) – take on the Saoirse Ronan role as the titular wood-dwelling Hanna. She’s been camped out in a Central European forest since she was rescued by secret agent dad Joel Kinnaman (The Killing(US), Robocop, Altered Carbon) from a special institution when she was just a baby. Why was she there? We don’t know. Why has dad kept her from the world? Because he reckons that the evil secret agent woman in charge of chasing them down (Kinnaman’s The Killing (US) co-star Mireille Enos) is going to come after them if she discovers that they survived the car crash that killed Creed-Miles’ mother.
In the 16 years or so since, dad has been home schooling Creed-Miles in languages, geography and how to kill a man with just your thumb – presumably so she can look after herself or at least go to finishing school. Unfortunately, one day, she decides to disobey dad’s edict not to leave their little area of the forest and comes across a Polish wood chopper. After twatting him around a bit, she warms to him and ends up going exploring with him, which even more unfortunately leads to the wood chopper being arrested – and Enos discovering that Creed-Miles and Kinnaman are still alive.
Hantastic?
And that’s more or less it for this first, preview episode of the series, which will premiere in full on Amazon next month. Which makes it hard really to tell if it’s any good. Creed-Miles is fine, Kinnaman is fine, Enos is fine. There’s all the gloss and production values you’d hope for from Amazon or even a Netflix production, with some lovely forest location filming and even a bit of Paris (or maybe faux Paris), too.
But the cast don’t really have that much to do. If you’re hoping that Kinnaman and Enos will even get to speak to one another, let alone have a scene together, you’ll be disappointed. Kinnamon gets to be punchy and test Creed-Miles on the population of Hanover, but there’s not really much of a familial bond between him and her, perhaps through design, perhaps not. The fight scenes are very good, but don’t do anything you’ve not seen before.
And as a plot… well, half an hour of wandering round the forest doesn’t really count.
Wait and see
So while Hanna might be a great show, Amazon’s decision to try to preview the series to whet our appetites is a weird one. I feel like I’ve already started the show and when episode two finally arrives in a month or so, I’ll be restarting after a long gap of time. And this first episode is certainly not spectacular enough – or even particularly engaging – to make me feel that’s going to be a worthwhile endeavour.
I’ve also already seen the original movie, and given this sticks relatively closely to the original story, I’m not that sure if watching something five times longer that’s basically the same is a good use of my time either.
So if you were planning on watching this, I’d advise holding off until the rest of the series becomes available.
